


Shifting Outside the Words

by starlurker



Category: As the World Turns
Genre: Future Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-10
Updated: 2010-08-10
Packaged: 2017-10-11 00:45:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/106365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starlurker/pseuds/starlurker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Luke has an epiphany.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shifting Outside the Words

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt fill for _alicesprings at the lure_prompts community. First time Reid declares his feelings.

Lesson who-cares-how-many-at-this-point – because Luke certainly didn't – of teaching Reid certain social graces had just finished, and as always, it was an exasperating but charming good time. His next idea involved filming Reid's responses and his body language, but he probably had to build that up so that Reid wouldn't just walk out the minute he saw a camera. No harm in laying in the foundation though.

Luke said, "I'm going to get a new camera."

"Yeah, yeah," Reid said absently, shifting some papers around on his desk. Luke put his hands on Reid's shoulders and gave him a massage. Reid looked up and smiled briefly for Luke and murmured his thanks. The blinds in Reid's office window were wide open and Luke would normally be all about privacy, but it was nice to be with someone who was so unapologetically himself that he borrowed a bit of courage and decided to leave the blinds open. It wasn't like he was going to give Reid a lap dance.

"What's all this for?" Luke asked, gesturing at the papers strewn about on Reid's desk.

"Ugh. Contracts. Codes of conduct."

"The challenges of being the chief of staff," Luke said, pressing his thumbs near Reid's nape, smoothing away some residual tension.

"I'm not even chief of staff yet," Reid said. "And this avalanche of paper work is already beginning. My first big investment will be a shredder. My second investment will be an assistant. I'm thinking of getting Mathilda."

"The dragon lady of hospital admin?" Luke asked. "Reid, she makes the admin department cringe when they hear her heels. She made emergency patients cry."

"Exactly," Reid said. "People will think twice about bothering me."

"_I'd_ think twice before bothering you," Luke said. "Don't get the female version of you to guard your door. You'll kill each other by the end of the day."

"Female version of me?" Reid swivelled around his orthopaedic chair and looked at Luke. "Does that mean you'll go straight and flirt with her when I'm not looking? Because that's the biggest disincentive in her column right now."

"Yes," Luke said. "I'll convince her that I'm into women, and then tell her to leave her husband of 25 years so that we can elope. I'm thinking Paris."

"You can have baguettes every day," Reid said. "You can have threesomes with a swarthy man named Marcel and enrol in mime classes."

"Candlelight dinners at the top of the Eiffel Tower."

"Stinky cheese on the banks of the Seine."

"We'll all wear matching berets."

"Even Marcel?" Reid raised his eyebrows. "Won't that blow your beret budget?"

"Nah. That'll be blown on the cameras we'll be getting. We'll make movies of mimes on bicycles while they're crying. Marcel has the lead role." Luke laughed out loud, unable to sustain the farce, and looked down to see Reid's face soften with a smile.

"Close the blinds," Reid said softly. Luke gulped and walked to the window, willing himself to calm down as he twisted the rod to shut the blinds. He hesitated for a moment, then locked the office door.

"What'd you have in mind?" Luke asked. He could feel his heartbeat and wondered if this was how antelope felt before the cheetah took them down. The expression on Reid's face was focused, intent, as he approached Luke with slow, deliberate steps. Luke closed his eyes and leaned back on the door, attempting to gain some sort of control and feeling all the effort go wildly astray when Reid nuzzled his neck. He felt Reid lick a stripe from his Adam's apple to the soft spot below his ear, felt Reid bite the pulse point on his neck and soothe it with a sucking kiss moments afterwards. Luke felt like he was about to explode -- he could hear himself panting and wondered where and when all his control disappeared.

"You smell so good," Reid whispered. "I think of you at night, spread out on my bed. The sheets hanging below your waist. The line of hair leading down. Your skin, God, your skin, so smooth and warm." Reid's hands slid beneath Luke's shirt and Luke couldn't stop the gasp that came out as Reid kept talking. "I think of tying you up so you can't get away, so I can take my time and drive you insane, until you're begging me to do anything, just so you can have some relief."

Luke kissed Reid to shut him up, unable to take any more. He heard Reid grunt when he deepened the kiss, relishing the singular pleasure of taking Reid by surprise.

It was easy to lose himself when he was kissing Reid. Everything became about the sensations: Reid's hands clasping his face first before slowly travelling down, his wicked mouth and tongue, the insistent press of his body because Reid liked pinning Luke to walls when they kissed.

Reid stopped all of a sudden, pushing himself off.

"Whuh?" was Luke's lust-stupid response.

Reid smiled, a grim line on his face, so unlike the softer one earlier. "You're waiting," he said. "And I don't want our first time to be in my office. I'll never be able to work here again if I can see you naked on that chair, or on that table."

Luke swallowed back his instinctive response that he wanted Reid to keep kissing him. "You make it easy to forget that I need time," he said.

Reid's lips quirked, as if he was trying not to laugh. "I'm good like that," he said. Luke rolled his eyes. "I know the wait will be worth it," Reid said casually. He went to sit on his chair and shuffled some papers around.

As far as epiphanies went, this one wasn't as big as the _I'm gay_ or the _I need help because I guzzled my liquor cabinet in a night_ moments. It wasn't the big rush of heightened teenaged feelings of _this feels right_ when Noah first kissed him. This was an epiphany that clicked and created a rush of certainty and confidence that made him feel stable and grounded: it clicked that he loved Reid right at that moment, and he has a feeling Reid was just waiting for him to cross that particular finish line.

Reid was staring at him oddly. "Are you OK?"

"Yeah," Luke said, breathless and still reeling.

"You don't look it," Reid said.

"I'm fine. Are you in love with me?" Luke asked impulsively and regretted it the minute it came out. "Oh God," he said, putting his face in his hands. "Kill me, please. I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking right, I'll leave—" Luke said, cutting himself off to look at Reid through his fingers. Maybe with his money, he could develop a small earthquake machine that could swallow people up whenever they made hideous social gaffes.

Reid's look was far from impressed. "Of course I'm in love with you, you idiot. Do you really think I'd wait for anyone else?"

Luke could only laugh in disbelief. Reid's face didn't change.

"You're pretty sure of that," Luke said.

"Why wouldn't I be?' Reid countered.

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"Because we're not at the same place yet," Reid said, a hint of disbelief in his voice that meant he was questioning Luke's intelligence right now and really trying hard not to say that out loud. "I hate awkward pauses. You know that."

"So why say it now?" Luke asked.

"Because you figured it out. What would have been the point in denial, or in hiding it after?" Reid got up from his chair and raised his hand to stroke Luke's cheek, his first, most familiar endearing gesture. "I'm assuming that little moment before was the epiphany?"

"Yeah," Luke admitted sheepishly. For all the time that he had been trying to teach Reid how to soften his approach, it was obvious now that Reid already knew how to handle people, despite his rough manners. It was Luke who had to learn that and have faith in it, not the other way around. "Reid?" he asked.

Reid tilted his head in a silent question.

"Here endeth the lessons of people skills," Luke said.

"I was enjoying them," Reid said, a note of petulance in his voice.

"No you weren't," Luke said. He took Reid's face in his hands to stare at Reid intently. "I have faith in you, Reid Oliver. I know you won't embarrass yourself." Luke paused. "That much," he added.

Reid's laugh was low this time, two short exhales of breath. "Some humiliation is unavoidable," he said, "when my personality is like this. Fortunately, I rarely care all that much."

Luke felt completely grown-up all of a sudden, in every sense of the word. This was a day of epiphanies. To have someone say they love you and mean it and not have any other expectation was exhilarating. Liberating in the best sense. It was like finding solid ground after stumbling around drunkenly for so long, like shedding some childhood illusions that had outgrown their usefulness only to find that reality was infinitely better. He pulled Reid closer to him, feeling the shape of the confident, steady man in his arms.

He'll invite Reid to dinner tonight and he'll beg for Reid to clear his schedule. He'll book a room at the inn and make sure there's some classy non-alcoholic alternative to champagne waiting for them. He'll get flowers probably, and candles too, because he liked it and Reid would roll his eyes indulgently. He'll go on the internet and try to learn a few tricks from some gay forums online – one partner isn't all that much experience. He'll get Reid to sit on the bed and he'll say that he's tired of waiting, that he wants to take the next step. He'll ask for Reid to teach him, and he has a feeling that he'll be an inspired student. And when all that is said and done, he'll put his head on Reid's chest, listen to his heartbeat and confess the other part of his epiphany today.

For now, Luke lost himself in the moment. The future looked welcoming.

THE END


End file.
